Why Didn't We Notice It Before?
by Sarah the Swinub
Summary: There is no boundary to love. Not gender. Not age. Not, erm... being dead or not. Um... ClaskoxMaechen yaoi


**A/N:** Alrighty, I haven't written anything fanfic-y in a looooong time so if this sucks, don't say I didn't warn you.

Basically, I'm talking to my best friend Dannichu (check out her fanfics at and we were discussing the underrepresented pairings of FFX. As we do.

Anyhoo, she suggested a plotline for a fic we randomly came up with – a ClaskoxMaechen (you know it'd happen) and it goes as thus:

Clasko's wandering along with his chocobo on the Mi'ihen Highroad and then Maechen starts rambling about old buildings and it's love at first sight!

**Disclaimer:** So, here goes. If you are mentally scarred, then don't say I didn't warn you. Also, FFX belongs to those funky people over at Square Enix and the plot is aaaaall Dannichu's. As is quite obvious, this fic will concern mild yaoi (two men in romantic situations) but nothing too drastic and all done in a purely humourous manner.

**Why Didn't We Notice It Before?**

It was a sunny day on the Mi'ihen Highroad. Then again, I dare you to go there and find a day on the Mi'ihen Highroad when it ISN'T sunny. I bet you can't.

Anyway, the sun was shining, the chocobos were squawking, the grass was waving in the breeze and the standard sprites walked past in a never-ending pattern of joy, occasionally handing over Potions, Gil and various other random items to the Playable Characters when spoken to. That or complaining about where their brother had got to. You know, whatever worked for them.

Tidus, Yuna and the rest of their merry gang walked down the Highroad, occasionally stopping whenever their screen smashed into a bazillion pieces and the fiends appeared from nowhere, as did their weapons, items and any other random stuff they had that was nowhere to be seen otherwise.

"That's the fifth battle in the last ten minutes!" moaned Wakka, dropping his Blitzball on the floor and massaging his muscles to try and alleviate the ache.

"Well, if CERTAIN PEOPLE didn't keep running around in circles so that we could get stronger for NO REAL REASON..." said Auron pointedly, glaring at Tidus, who was still flipping his shiny blue sword from Wakka and grinning at Yuna, who smiled politely back.

"Hey, who knows what we'll be doing soon? We could, I don't know, be fighting Sinspawn again!" Tidus retorted, resorting to using his patented 'pouty face'. Lulu rolled her eyes, as did her plush Moogle, while Yuna promptly melted into a puddle of goo.

Metaphorically.

Before Auron could decide that enough was enough and using his sword on Tidus rather than the next fiend they found, 'Where are they coming from anyway?' wondered Auron to himself, the Chocobo Knights rode up. Thankful for the distraction from the rest of the team's pointless bickering, Kimahri turned towards them, drawing the attention of his comrades.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" asked Tidus, forgetting his argument completely at the sight of the bizarre yellow birds and their slightly less bizarre riders.

"Greetings, Summoner and Guardians." responded Captain Lucil, inclining her head to Yuna, "I am glad to say that it is a good day for patrols."

"That is good news, thank you for your hard work." said Yuna with her customary politeness and optimism. Tidus secretly wondered if she wore rose-tinted contacts - differently-coloured eyes certainly were an odd phenomenon.

"Well, Lady Yuna, we'd better be going!" smiled Elma, waving goodbye with her spare hand, the other keeping tight hold of the reigns of her chocobo. Yuna waved back, as did Wakka, Tidus and Lulu, Kimahri and Auron being too cool for waving. And school, one would assume.

The Chocobo Knights left, Clasko waving morosely as he rode away, struggling to keep up the energy for patrols that his female colleagues seemed to possess.

"I wonder why he always seems so sad?" pondered Yuna aloud, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"Well, Elma and the Captain seem very happy to just ride around and uphold justice or whatever." said Tidus, surprising Lulu with his perceptiveness – she had been thinking the same thing.

"Maybe he just feels like he needs someone who isn't a girl, ya?" interjected Wakka, rubbing the back of his neck and picking up his Blitzball.

"As fun as it sounds to discuss this...fascinating subject, how about we discontinue discussion over the mental state of a person we barely know and actually get somewhere?" said Auron, shouldering his sword and glowering at the others in case they dared disagree with the almighty will of Auron, everyone's favourite giant sword-wielding, shexy dead man...other than certain other FFVII characters, but let's not go down that road. Sticking to FFX, that's what we're doing.

"A good idea." agreed Lulu, leading the way down the road, moving towards the Travel Agency they had stayed at last night before retracing their steps for training purposes. "I would like to reach Djose before it gets dark."

Shrugging, Tidus grinned at Yuna again and followed his friends down the road.

Clasko sighed miserably, scuffing his metal boots on the dusty ground outside another example of the Mi'ihen Highroad's ruins. As the motley crew had correctly guessed, he was rather lacking in the friendly company department.

Nearby, Elma and Lucil were having an animated discussion about new patrol routes and ways of approaching different types of fiends. Not that Clasko didn't care about protecting people – on the contrary, it was always nice to have people thank them for helping out – but it just wasn't something he could get so excited about. The only thing he could ever get excited about was chocobos and that was just because they were cute and didn't mind listening to his problems. Which, to his utmost depression, were rather numerous.

A significant other was probably at the top of the list – what with Sin periodically attacking, who knows when he'd be next in line for a meeting with the business end of a Sin encounter. He didn't particularly want to die at any rate, but since his job required a fair amount of dangerous encounters, he'd rather find someone he loved and be happy with before he shuffled off the mortal coil - later rather than sooner, he hoped.

Yes, someone he loved would be nice. Other than a random encounter (no pun intended) with a girl from his hometown when he had been six and his class had decided that a game of kiss chase was the life or death at that moment, any romantic encounters had passed him by. He supposed that if he made an effort to hang out with any woman other than his two friends and his mother in Luca, he might be in with a standing chance. However, he had little time to himself and it had been so long before he was in a purely social setting he had to wonder whether he was actually physically capable of liking anyone, regardless of gender.

Sighing again, he flopped to the floor and looked up at the sky. After a moment's contemplation, he sighed again and wondered why looking at the sky made some people so happy. All it did was give him a nasty crick in the neck and the fear that a fiend would jump at him while he was distracted. He then came to the conclusion that he should stop thinking so much and look back down, as the latter was giving him a rather painful neck. Looking around at his normal eye level, he could see the Lady Yuna in the far distance with her guardians, walking towards the Djose shore and the operation they were yet to discover the full extent of.

Clasko thought that the Operation was a very bad idea, as he knew that however powerful the Al Bhed were or however steadfast the Crusaders' devotion was to protecting the people of Spira, it was all going to end badly. He was just glad that Lucil and Elma had not asked for his company on the mission – he'd already done enough to persuade them from taking part in it. He was worried, but he knew that they had enough sense to not just charge blindly into whatever happened on the gloomy beaches.

As Lady Yuna and her friends disappeared from view around a corner towards the Travel Agency, Clasko considered how much he admired Lady Yuna for her passion and determination. She poured her whole being into her mission as a Summoner and didn't let anyone order her around – Clasko wished he could be like that. If he was a far braver man and if she wasn't on a suicide mission, put very bluntly, he would have asked if they could become friendlier, but he knew that he never could. Plus, the blonde boy seemed very protective of her already and he knew she had nothing to worry about when it came to a bit of manly protection. Then again, Clasko knew that his scary neighbour with the cat obsession would provide more of a manly protection than he ever could. A depressing thought, he sighed.

On the other side of the ruins, Captain Lucil and Elma had not lost interest in their apparently thrilling discussion and any hope of them being on the move in the near future was a vain one. Falling onto his back, Clasko closed his eyes and rested one arm over his face to block out the rather insistent glare from the sun. Despite the brightness of the weather, Clasko would rarely find himself overheating in his customary attire of green jumpsuit, armour and boots. Naturally cold, he had concluded.

He had been lying in this manner for a short while when he felt a shadow fall across him and he cricked open one eye. Before him stood a slightly bent man, wearing blue and green robes to match his identically-patterned hat. His round glasses and white beard gave him a rather kindly air of a grandfather, but Clasko, who had become better at sensing the nature of people over the years for sheer lack of anything else to do, decided that there was something decidedly different about this man.

"Hello," said the man, his tone radiating wisdom and learned-ness, "I do not believe we have truly met." Clasko nodded, pulling himself up to stand next to the man – it was more polite, after all.

"Pleased to meet you – I'm Clasko, from the Chocobo Knights." said Clasko, extending his hand for the man to shake.

"I am Maechen, a scholar." Maechen replied, briefly grasping Clasko's hand in his in a firm handshake. "I am on a journey, studying the history of our world, Spira, seeking its stories and secrets...My travels have taken me to many places, and I am troubled by what I have seen. Fragile smiles on people's faces crumbling at the mere mention of Sin." Maechen's eyes clouded over as he spoke, his sadness apparent. Clasko, never one to let a person be sad (besides himself, although he had concluded he was beyond help), tried to cheer him up.

"Well, that's what the Summoner and the Crusaders are trying to do, isn't it? Get rid of Sin?" Clasko said cajolingly, patting Maechen on the shoulder. Maechen's eyes seemed less cloudy behind his glasses and he gave Clasko a half-hearted smile.

"Thank you, my dear boy; you are very kind to this old man." Maechen said, clasping Clasko's hand briefly again before letting go to survey his surroundings. Clasko studied his expression silently – the man was obviously still not happy about something, although Sin was hardly a cause for merriment for anyone these days. If Lady Yuna or the Crusaders were to fail...he didn't want to think of an eternal age of Sin.

"Well, Clasko, I feel that I should be moving on – many ruins, little time, you know." his smile now seeming more genuine, Maechen waved goodbye and started off up the Highroad to the ruin that stood maybe half a mile away. Clasko watched him leave, his head turned to one side. There was something definitely odd about Maechen and he just couldn't figure out what.

It had been half an hour and Clasko had almost given up hope of Captain Lucil and Elma finishing their conversation before the Calm came around. Deciding that it couldn't hurt to wander around for a while, Clasko untethered his chocobo and held it by the reigns so they could both get a walk.

They had only been walking a short time when Clasko heard the distinctive roar of a Dual Horn, followed by a strangled yell for help. Jumping on his chocobo for extra speed, Clasko dashed off towards the source of the noise, eventually arriving at one of the many clearings. As luck would have it, Maechen was cowering on the floor, dodging the occasional blow from the large, two-headed fiend, whose roar echoed over and over again throughout the surrounding area.

Wasting no time, Clasko judged that Maechen's defences, already paltry without a weapon and with his age, were weakening rapidly. Setting his chocobo off at an abrupt pace towards the giant fiend, the bird's large beak connecting with its right head, blinding it and throwing it off Maechen. Clasko jumped off, commanded the chocobo to keep the Dual Horn busy and, if possible, kill it, while he helped out Maechen.

As his chocobo charged off, Clasko hastened to Maechen's side. The man's glasses had slipped off in the scuffle and although he seemed weakened, he was not grievously injured. Making sure that Maechen stayed conscious, Clasko looked up in time to see the Dual Horn explode into pyreflies and some Gil...he never really understood the whole fiends-dropping-stuff thing, but there you go. Leaving the Gil to a lucky passer-by, Clasko picked up the surprisingly light man, propped him up on the chocobo, jumped up behind him and hastened the chocobo off towards the Travel Agency and Rin's trusty First Aid kit.

Clasko rubbed his face tiredly and walked into the Travel Agency's bar, sitting in a stool at the bar and letting his head rest in his hands.

After reaching the Travel Agency, Rin had immediately agreed to help with Maechen's situation and that had been two hours ago. Clasko had heard since then that Maechen was fine but resting, yet he couldn't shake his pressing feeling that there was more to come. Clasko had always hated foreshadowing.

Requesting a drink from the bartender, Clasko let his gaze drift around the room. Bar, chairs, door, Maechen, chairs, tables, windows...Maechen? Sitting up, Clasko looked confusedly at Maechen, who merely smiled and sat down next to Clasko, ordering a glass of Shoopuf milk for himself.

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" asked Clasko, accepting his own drink and taking a gulp. Maechen rolled his eyes behind his glasses and offered Clasko another smile.

"It got rather tiresome, as I feel much better now." he slurped his own drink in a rather un-gentlemanly fashion and Clasko couldn't help but chuckle, quiet as he tried to make it. Maechen gave him an accusatory glance and took another slurp, his face reddening slightly as Clasko slowly keeled face forward into the bar with giggles. Giving up, Maechen set down his drink and gently thwapped Clasko on the back of the head.

"Ouch! Hey, that hurt!" Clasko said, grinning. Maechen glowered back, but Clasko could read the humour in his eyes. The two men smiled at each other for a moment before returning to their drinks. Clasko looked at Maechen out of the corner of his eye, working up his courage.

"Hey...what's up? You don't seem too happy to me." Clasko said quickly, never being good at this whole probing questions thing. Maechen studied him over his glasses, his blue eyes a sea of confusion.

"I believe you were there for the attack on my person by a Dual Horn...one would assume that it was enough to make a person less than happy." Maechen said in slightly clipped tones, giving Clasko the distinct impression that he didn't want to further the subject. However, Clasko, having had two drinks at this point and never having been able to hold his drinks too well, decided that he may as well take the plunge and begin to pressure him about it – if the man was upset about something, he may as well try to sympathise, shouldn't he?

"I don't think that's it – you weren't entirely happy when we first met. I could tell." said Clasko stubbornly, waving at the bartender for another drink to calm his omnipresent nerves. Maechen looked as if he was going to leave Clasko to his tipsy state but instead asked for a drink himself, taking off his hat and resting it on the bar, revealing a surprisingly full head of hair for an apparently old man.

"I suppose you are right, I am sad. But it is not for you to worry yourself about, Clasko." Maechen took a miserable sip of his drink, making a slight face at the taste. Clasko blinked at him, the drink clouding his better judgement. Slinging an arm around Maechen's shoulders, he gave him a one-armed hug.

"Cheer up, Maechen! It couldn't be too bad, can it?" Clasko said jovially, grinning crookedly at Maechen, who merely gave him an incredulous look and drained his glass as if to give him strength to deal with the unrelenting young man. Which it was for, actually.

"Oh how little you know. I bet it is a bad problem." he responded, gesturing for another drink. Clasko, not feeling like he wanted to be deterred, persisted.

"C'mon! You can tell me! We're buddies, right?" he cajoled, shaking Maechen's shoulders again, his arm still resting across them. Maechen just gave him a 'drop it' look that Clasko, predictably, ignored.

"My dear boy, we've hardly met and now we're getting drunk together after your undoubtedly brave and stupid actions against the Dual Horn – I would not yet consider us 'buddies', as you so eloquently put it." Maechen tried to shake off Clasko's arm, but was unsuccessful and relented to draining his glass, banging it on the bar for a refill.

Clasko examined Maechen closely – he was most definitely hiding something and Clasko intended to find out what. The trick, he decided, was to get Maechen as drunk as possible.

"An' then I said 'Would you like me ta tell you a story?' and they said 'No' – NO! Ya'd think tha' people'd wanna listen to a scholarly type chap but nooooooo..." Clasko was very quickly discovering that Maechen was the type that, when drunk, became rambly and depressed. However, he was getting closer to knowing what exactly was bothering Maechen – he could feel it. Banging his drink on the counter in a repetitive motion until the confused bartender refilled it, Maechen looked lopsidedly and sorrowfully at Clasko.

"You're my ONLY friend, ya know?" he cried, throwing his arms around Clasko's middle and squeezing. "I'm really glad you saved me from tha' Dual Horn...I may be dead bu' it still hur's, ya know?" Clasko, who had been gently prying Maechen away, stopped cold. Dead? DEAD? That was why he was so depressed?

Maechen noticed that Clasko had stopped moving and looked up at him.

"Whassamatter? I'm just DEAD, y'know...coul' be worse...I coul' have blue hair like tha' Sylvia..." Maechen muttered.

"Seymour." Clasko corrected automatically, his mind reeling. He had thought that Maechen's wife might have left him or something, but death was a bit of a shock – he wasn't aware that dead people could still walk around. He thought that they died, they turned into pyreflies and either became fiends or went to the Farplane. That's just how it went, wasn't it?

"How long have you been dead?" Clasko asked suddenly, cursing himself for his callousness. Maechen, however, didn't seem to mind.

"I wa' born 'bout a thousan' years ago." he said semi-proudly, "Lived in Zanarkan' too! Though no one believes me 'bout it..." Letting go of Clasko, Maechen slumped back on his stool and stared into his drink. "Still don' know wha' I'm doin' 'ere, but Whaddaya gonna do?"

Clasko shook his head, still disbelieving. Dead? That just wasn't possible.

"Well, I had a grea' time, me boy!" cried Maechen jovially, as he and Clasko stood outside the bar in the twilit exterior of the Travel Agency. Clasko just nodded, still reeling from the whole death thing. That just wasn't something you thought would happen.

"Yeah, me too..." said Clasko distractedly, glancing at the older ('MUCH older', he thought) man next to him. Without warning, Maechen wrapped his arms around Clasko, this time around his neck, and placed a sloppy kiss on his lips, before stumbling off into the night, asking a passer-by if they'd like to hear a story.

Clasko was still standing there ten minutes later, his face frozen in a myriad of expressions. When he finally moved off towards his room, his first thought was "Well, at least I can add to my list of romantic encounters..."

---

Well kids, that's it. Sorry about the rushed ending but I had a VERY short amount of time with which to write this so I had to finish it quickly.

-Rabid Psycho


End file.
